Glass mirrors, including those with a parabolic shape, are useful for solar applications. In some solar applications, parabolic-shaped mirrors can be used for solar concentrator systems. A solar concentrator system is one where sunlight is reflected with increased, concentrated intensity on a receiving unit. Because of the optical effects associated with parabolic-shaped mirrors, such shapes are useful for focusing concentrated sunlight.
Forming parabolic mirrors can be accomplished through sag-bending techniques. There are challenges associated with forming parabolic-shaped glass mirrors with sag bending. For example, it can be challenging to form a parabolic-shaped glass sheet because the curve deviation from a flat sheet of glass increases as the length of the glass sheet increases. Thus, longer mirrors have portions that are deformed a small amount and a greater amount. The dissimilarity in deformation amounts can cause increased difficulty in accurately controlling the shape of the glass sheet during deformation.
Solar concentrator systems can be sensitive to minor variations in operating conditions, such as mirror shape, which can affect the location of concentrated sunlight on the receiving unit, the shape of the concentrated sunlight reflected area, and other aspects of the system, all of which contribute to the efficiency and power output of the system. Accordingly, solar concentrator systems benefit from components made to very high precision. Thus, crafting parabolic mirrors with minimized defects or deviations from an ideal shape provides a benefit to a solar concentrator system.